How does Martin Campbell, director of ‘ Casino Royale’, engage a modern audience through his use of the conventions of the Bond genre? “ Shaken’ not stirred”. This is one of the most famous quotes in movie history from the ever so inspiring Ian Fleming. The unexpected massive franchise started in 1953 when Ian Fleming wrote his first book… “ Casino Royale. ” The books became popular at a reasonably paced rate and then Fleming had a movie on his hands. In 1962 it came out.
It wasn’t “ Casino Royale”, his first book, but it was “ Dr No”, the book he had wrote four years earlier.
Forty-eight years later and the genre have grown bigger and bigger with the twenty-second film coming out just recently before I have wrote this. The conventions of Bond are well known; from his cars to the clothes he wears he carries an iconic look that everyone knows, but after time these are altered towards the modern age that we live in like in ‘ Casino Royale’ when he uses a mobile phone. At our time mobile phones are an everyday object but at the time ‘ Dr No’ was made it would be regarded as a dream design for the future. The suit he is always wearing in the older films gets used far less than normally for only when he plays poker.
In the older films he used to go around basically everywhere with his suit on and defeat everyone in the not very easily manoeuvrable girl magnet.
He may have changed this because of the sense of realistic ethics in movies at this age. Every time a new Bond film comes out it appeals to more and more audiences from little boys to grown women. If you are a man and planning to watch this film sat next to a woman, don’t! Unless if you want the woman sat there drooling on you over Daniel Craig, when he is coming out of the sea, until actress Eva Green walks in.
If you don’t see what I’m trying to get too just then, then I’ll put it into two words what women want to see when watching this, James Bond.
Children watch James bond for the action packed scenes throughout the movie which are more predictable than Middlesbrough not getting promoted in the Championship. The bond girls are always and always going to be sexy and alluring. It’s constantly going to be a stereotypical view from mainly men. From the first Bond film, women have been a major sex symbol within the Bond title, but as the films go by, there have got a little bit more intelligent, until Martin
Campbell produced a massive leap of sophistication towards Vesper Lynd. Women, a colossal icon on the Bond genre, a colossal part of Bond’s life too. James Bond and the main woman in the film are continuously like ‘ Batman and Robin’ in their mind related partnership.
If they were no women in the Bond films, they would have stopped fifty years ago: one because he would have died without the help from the women (like when Vesper Lynd hooks the wire to the ‘ defibulator’ and saves Bond’s life) and two, because men would have one less thing to watch Bond for. Vesper Lynd is the main Bond girl in Casino Royale.
She is played by Eva Green, a French actress who was born 5th July 1980. Vesper Lynd was in the first Casino Royale but being portrayed by Ursula Andress. Vesper worked as a personal assistant to the head of section S at MI6 until she got loaned out to Bond to try and bankrupt Le Chiffre. She is different to all of the other Bond girls as she steals Bond’s heart.
He learns from his mistakes, this is why he only gives his heart out to her until he meets Tracy in On Her Majesties Secret Service. Vesper is clever; this is one of the reasons why she is Bond’s equal.
I’m not saying Bond isn’t smart, because he is; it’s just that he would say something then she would correct this. She shows her intelligence by guessing Bond’s background just by the look of him. She does this straight after he provides his surprisingly accurate judgement on her. She also flirts with him in the conversation she has with him about the government’s money.
“ So as charming as I find you, Mr. Bond, I will be keeping my eye on our Government’s money, and off your perfectly formed arse. ” I could go as far as saying Vesper Lynd is James Bond’s true love.
They show such romance until the betrayal that you don’t think anything can break what they think of each other.
Bond’s attitude changes though, he sees her as an enemy even though she was an ally. I know this because he says “ The bitch is dead. ” He then finds out that she betrayed him to let him live just after he calls her a bitch. Once he is told his reaction is speechless. Your first impressions of Vesper are serious, sly and quick moving.
You get the impression of her being quick moving from how she sits down as soon as she gets near Bond. She gives the impression that she does things quickly and smoothly by this swift move.
She gives off the notion of being sly by how she moves into the chair and that being the first time you see her. Her clothes give off the feeling of both work and play. She has business like clothes on to show she is working but with it being a bit revealing.
The dark colours she is wearing suggest death and despair. The red dress she wears when he discovers she has betrayed him could symbolise warning and sacrifice. The clothes she wears are always covering her up even if there are a few buttons undone. Vesper is never seen wearing a swimsuit or underwear. This shows innocence to her character.
The attitudes towards the earlier Bond girls are very different to what gender is commenting on them.
From a male point of view it is of sexual content, and from women it’s like calling them cheap women who have sexual intercourse with anyone. Honey Ryder is the third Bond girl, and first main Bond girl. Her name in the novel was Honeychile Rider but then got shortened in 1962. She was played by Swiss actress Ursula Andress, who played Vesper Lynd in the first Casino Royale.
In good Bond girl fashion, her name was a double entendre for the classic sexual position.
The first impressions of Honey Ryder are mostly sexual. She enters with two large shells in her hands to reference to her breasts. She is also in a revealing swimsuit that pushes the impression of sexual nature even further. Once you put two and two together you realize another impression of dumbness. In them times every girl that was beautiful were stereotyped into them being an airhead.
The way she comes out of the water shows exoticness. Bond and Honey’s relationship contains the element of Bond being the leader and Honey following his commands.
Within minutes of first singing together, Bond is seen protecting her already. This shows that he thinks he can do whatever he wants. He gets surprised when she tells him about killing her land lord after he raped her.
This shows a dark side to Honey and Bond looks like he takes a different approach towards Honey than he first did. The uses of gadgets in this film are seen as achieved ideas. What I mean is that the likes of gadgets he uses in Casino Royale are ideas that have already been made like the mobile phone that he uses.
He also uses his Aston Martin fully equipped with weaponry and tools, the tracking device that he placed into Le Chiffre’s inhaler, and an explosive key ring that Bond attaches to a henchman.
The action scenes in Casino Royale are tougher than the Bond films that have followed up to the film. The action scenes are more realistic due to modern age technology. They are more equal too; this is due to Bond being less experienced and inexpert. The locations of the film represent few things. One of which being how they feel to where they are.
This is shown by when Bond and Vesper are n love and in Venice, which has been described as the most romantic city in Europe. They also filmed the Aston Martin crash scene at Millbrook race circuit with is ironically for testing cars on how well they turn. I guess the Aston Martin wasn’t very good around that track. Techniques used in filming contain the likes of a blurred screen, an inside view of a flipping car and a black and white intro. The blurred screen is used when Bond gets poisoned and heads towards his car.
The blurred screen shows how Bond’s vision would have been in that moment in time. The car flipping scene also shows Bond vision towards the outside world.
The black and white intro shows us darkness towards the film. It also gives us a vintage kind of feel. This is probably because this is the prequel to the Bond genre so far.
Martin Campbell has changed a lot of the Bond genre to keep up with the modern times and he has succeeded. This impressive film adapted from a novel wrote 53 years before. The convention of the Bond girl has changed towards modern times with her being Bond’s equal. The only unperfected elements being in my mind that the lack of gadgets gives it a less Bond feel, but overall a great film to a modern audience. By Ryan Rutherford
